Monday, October 31, 2011

Once again, I must first apologize for the delayed posting. We had us some Internet connectivity troubles (among other small fires--ha!), and as a result, were unable to get to this post until now. These issues appear to be resolved for now, so without further ado, I present to you the Second Bedroom Painting Process/Outcome:

We started out on a Friday night with prepping and priming. We had to bring a bunch of supplies up from our storage locker, move all the furniture, and tape off/tarp the room...

(gallery o' gifts brushes -- if you ever lived at 7 Red Fox Lane in Amherst, MA, that one was for you)

We also decided to prime and paint the baseboards... We had once considered replacing these, to match the new ones in the living/dining room and halls, but with the carpet installation happening out of order thanks to the floor situation over the summer, we just decided this would be easier for now.

On the morning of Day 2 (aka Saturday, aka-College-Football-dictates-painting-schedule-day), we got up bright and early and got to work. For Dave this meant checking the prime-job and adjusting any tape, etc. For me, this meant a first-thing-in-the-morning-trip to our favorite paint store.

This morning also brought to us the discovery of another curiosity left-over from the previous owner. Instead of painting the wooden frame around the sliding doors, our home's former tenant covered them... with duct tape. A lesson for those who like to decorate with duct tape: old duct tape leaves residue behind. Dealing with this requires sanding. Dave also had to sand the wooden door frame:

When I returned from the paint store we got to work on coat #1. Hard to see it, but it's there:

After the Michigan game, we finished coat #2, and then let it dry overnight. Here you have a shot of the finished product, complete with freshly-painted wooden door frame and freshly-hung curtains:

A second outcome of this project was the removal of the ugly old enormous ceiling fan (you can see a shot of it in this round-up post, in the photos of the new carpets), which also turned out to be somewhat of a danger, as it appears to have only been attached to the ceiling by those two tiny stud-screws you can see in the photo below. The search for new lighting starts... now!

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

We are in a saving-for-the-next-big-demo phase here (both bathrooms need re-doing), so all the updates/fixes/tweaks we have planned for the foreseeable future are smaller-scale. This includes (at least): changing light fixtures, stripping remaining wallpaper, scrubbing off wallpaper glue from walls, putting up art, maybe some furniture upgrades, curtains, and painting.

I don't remember paint selection for the three areas already painted (hallway, kitchen, living/dining room) being so stressful. But maybe I've just put it all out of my head because of the intensity of the trauma. Somehow I doubt that. But we can't settle on a color! We can't even come close to narrowing down a color group! Some people know that we've said we're painting the bedrooms several weekends in a row now, and yet somehow, neither bedroom is even taped off or primed at all. That changes this week! We are set and determined to paint at least the multipurpose second bedroom this coming weekend. SET AND DETERMINED! HELL-BENT! It's happening. As you can see, all that has to be done is the selection of a paint color. Here are the paint color chips we've "narrowed" to (for both bedrooms)... Note, we'd like to have the paint purchased before the weekend so we can just get started and finish as quickly as possible... we'll see how that goes:

It has been five years--FIVE YEARS!--of dish washing by hand at the Schwab home. Having lived without a dishwasher (among other things) for that long, we really didn't miss it. OR SO WE THOUGHT. At long last, our dishwasher is fully installed and functional! And our hands are audibly weeping with joy. It's true. Trust.

(now with stuff in it!)

(lights! lights that are on! indicating function!)

Just another reason to celebrate (which means special occasion, which means dessert! whee! see how I make that work!)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

I know I owe a post about next projects, but between traveling, celebrating friends' nuptials, and having visitors, we haven't been around enough lately to organize those thoughts or even sit on the computer to post anything! So I thought I'd do another color post (or two?) as we prepare to enter the cold season, which we'll use as our productive-at-home season, offering progress and updates and posts in the coming months!